On a lazy afternoon as I was idly rummaging through some papers at my office, a long distance phone call woke me up! That was UNIDO, Vienna calling, trying to ascertain whether I was the same person who had authored a technical article published three months back in an industry journal. As I answered in the affirmative, next came the bombshell, whether I was interested in making a presentation on the same theme with all expenses paid by UNIDO in a conference in Caracas, Venezuela. That was too much to fathom and I could somehow mutter, ‘Oh! Yes, I could give it a try’.

All my good friends cautioned me about Latin America, the land of drug cartels and gang wars. ‘Be absolutely careful’, ‘trust nobody’ and ‘never venture anywhere alone’ were the advices showered on me. After taking off in the wee hours on a Saturday from IGIA, New Delhi and a long transit in Schiphol International, Amsterdam started the ten-hour long transatlantic ordeal. The KLM DC-10 almost swooped down on a tiny dot of emerald, the island of Aruba! The world famous vacation resort failed to impress me as I was reeling under a heavy jet lag. As I was continuously moving towards the west, the sun set in Aruba after seventeen hours ending the longest day of my life. I changed planes in Aruba and finally touched down at the Simon Bolivar International Airport at Caracas at about eight o’ clock in the evening. The immigration officer was quite a buddy with a grinning welcome.

With all the messages sent by fax and courier (none had reached the destination, as I realized later) to UNIDO and the local conference organizer, I was expecting a warm reception. Alas! There was none to be spotted holding a placard of my interest. I approached the only counter visible with something written in English, ‘May I help you’. It was quite something to convey my plight to the lady at the counter. With all her trials and tribulations with English, she did try to contact the local organizer’s office over telephone. But that was Saturday evening and you shouldn’t expect even a ghost in the office in Latin America!

Sleepless for over twenty-seven long hours after I had left New Delhi coupled with a heavy jet lag, I had more than my share of miseries. To top it all, I was marooned in a strange land with everyone around speaking in Spanish! I was almost at my tether’s end, when suddenly the hulk of a lady popped up from nowhere at the airport. A perfect roly-poly with almost equal height and girth proportions, the lady made quite an impression. She spoke fluent English; she readily agreed to give me a lift in her car and put me into hotel at Caracas. She told me to get some traveller’s cheques encashed into the local currency from the airport ‘cambio’ (money exchanger). The Dollar-Bolivar exchange rate brought me a lot of money and I was more than scared!

The lady drove me in her tattered Chevrolet sedan through a twenty-mile stretch from the airport to the city crossing three long tunnels below a range of mountains in between. I mustered a little courage hoping to engage her in a conversation. She introduced herself as Grace, currently working for a travel agency. She had lived in USA for three years, which explained the mystery behind her flawless English. Grace was working those days to finance her husband’s graduate studies in Chemical Engineering! What did I hear, I am a Chemical Engineer myself, the professional fraternity is universal, they say, how could she harm me, I consoled myself! She too was pleased to hear about my profession. She had a good knowledge about India. As we exchanged pleasantries, Grace drove me into hotel in Caracas. On thanking her profusely and completing the hotel formalities, I just blanked off in my room due to sheer exhaustion.

The hotel as I found out later was very conveniently located near the venue of my conference. In fact, Caracas turned out to be a wonderful city with very warm and friendly people highly interested in India. I made many friends and spent a very eventful week in Caracas but that’s another story!
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-Soumitra Biswas is a Chemical Engineer by profession and works as the Adviser in the Union Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. He dabbles in photography and travel writing in his spare time. Soumitra lives in New Delhi with his wife and two children. The views expressed in the article are totally his own. Soumitra may be contacted at soumitra03@hotmail.com